IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2016-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capital flight and foreign direct investment in Africa: An investigation of the role of natural resource endowment

Author

Listed:
  • Léonce Ndikumana
  • Mare Sarr

Abstract

This paper aims to provide theoretical and empirical insights into the puzzling simultaneous rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in Africa and capital flight from the continent over the past decades. It specifically explores two questions: Is FDI a potential driver of capital flight? And, is natural resource endowment a possible channel for the capital flight-FDI link? The econometric analysis is based on 32 African countries over the period 1970-2013 using dynamic panel data estimation methods. Three important findings emerge from the analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Léonce Ndikumana & Mare Sarr, 2016. "Capital flight and foreign direct investment in Africa: An investigation of the role of natural resource endowment," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-58, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2016-58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2016-58.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eaton, Jonathan, 1987. "Public Debt Guarantees and Private Capital Flight," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(3), pages 377-395, May.
    2. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. & Bulte, Erwin H., 2008. "The resource curse revisited and revised: A tale of paradoxes and red herrings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 248-264, May.
    3. Aleksynska, Mariya & Havrylchyk, Olena, 2013. "FDI from the south: The role of institutional distance and natural resources," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 38-53.
    4. Michael P. Dooley, 1988. "Capital Flight: A Response to Differences in Financial Risks," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 35(3), pages 422-436, September.
    5. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    6. Steven Poelhekke & Frederick van der Ploeg, 2013. "Do Natural Resources Attract Nonresource FDI?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 1047-1065, July.
    7. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1990. "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 92-96, May.
    8. Massimo Guidolin & Eliana La Ferrara, 2007. "Diamonds Are Forever, Wars Are Not: Is Conflict Bad for Private Firms?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1978-1993, December.
    9. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February.
    10. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    11. Ndikumana, Leonce & Boyce, James K., 2003. "Public Debts and Private Assets: Explaining Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 107-130, January.
    12. Elizabeth Asiedu, 2006. "Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: The Role of Natural Resources, Market Size, Government Policy, Institutions and Political Instability," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 63-77, January.
    13. Kolstad, Ivar & Søreide, Tina, 2009. "Corruption in natural resource management: Implications for policy makers," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 214-226, December.
    14. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634.
    15. kant, C., 1996. "Foreign Direct Investment and Capital Flight," Princeton Studies in International Economics 80, International Economics Section, Departement of Economics Princeton University,.
    16. Wiig, Arne & Kolstad, Ivar, 2010. "Multinational corporations and host country institutions: A case study of CSR activities in Angola," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 178-190, April.
    17. Abel E Ezeoha & Nicolette Cattaneo, 2012. "FDI Flows to Sub-Saharan Africa: The Impact of Finance, Institutions, and Natural Resource Endowment," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 54(3), pages 597-632, September.
    18. Kazue Demachi, 2014. "Capital flight from resource rich developing countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(2), pages 734-744.
    19. Ivar Kolstad & Arne Wiig, 2013. "Digging in the dirt? Extractive industry FDI and corruption," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 369-383, November.
    20. Mariya Aleksynska & Olena Havrylchyk, 2013. "•FDI from the South: The role of institutional distance and natural resources," Post-Print hal-01410591, HAL.
    21. Boyce, James K., 1992. "The revolving door? External debt and capital flight: A Philippine case study," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 335-349, March.
    22. Oliver Morrissey, 2012. "FDI in Sub-Saharan Africa: Few Linkages, Fewer Spillovers," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 24(1), pages 26-31, February.
    23. Prince Acheampong & Victor Osei, 2014. "Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Inflows into Ghana: Should the Focus Be on Infrastructure or Natural Resources? Short- Run and Long -Run Analyses," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(1), pages 42-51, January.
    24. Cuddington, John T., 1987. "Capital flight ," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 382-388.
    25. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    26. Pastor, Manuel Jr., 1990. "Capital flight from Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-18, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mercy W. Mwangi & Amos G. Njuguna & George O. Achoki, 2019. "Relationship between corruption and capital flight in Kenya: 1998-2018," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 8(5), pages 237-250, September.
    2. Asongu, Simplice & Nnanna, Joseph, 2020. "Governance and the Capital Flight Trap in Africa," MPRA Paper 103226, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Letete Emmanuel & Sarr Mare, 2017. "Working Paper 275 - Illicit Financial Flows and Political Institutions in Kenya," Working Paper Series 2392, African Development Bank.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Rexon T. Nting & Evans S. Osabuohien, 2019. "One Bad Turn Deserves Another: How Terrorism Sustains the Addiction to Capital Flight in Africa," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 501-535, September.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Fighting Capital Flight in Africa: Evidence from Bundling and Unbundling Governance," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 305-323, September.
    6. Pacific K. T. Yapatake & Gabriella M-A. M Ngaba, 2019. "Capital Flight and Extent of Corruption control in the Least Corrupt African Countries: An Empirical assessment," CEREDEC Working Papers 19/002, Centre de Recherche pour le Développement Economique (CEREDEC).
    7. Yameng Wang & Apurbo Sarkar & Linyan Ma & Qian Wu & Feng Wei, 2021. "Measurement of Investment Potential and Spatial Distribution of Arable Land among Countries within the “Belt and Road Initiative”," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Léonce Ndikumana & Mare Sarr, 2016. "Capital flight and foreign direct investment in Africa: An investigation of the role of natural resource endowment," WIDER Working Paper Series 058, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Leonce Ndikumana & Mare Sarr, 2016. "Capital Flight and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: An Investigation of the Role of Natural Resource Endowment," SALDRU Working Papers 167, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Leonce Ndikumana & Mare Sarr, 2019. "Capital Flight, Foreign Direct Investment and Natural Resources in Africa," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-12, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    4. Ndikumana, Léonce & Sarr, Mare, 2019. "Capital flight, foreign direct investment and natural resources in Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Simplice Asongu & Enowbi Batuo & Vanessa Tchamyou, 2015. "Bundling Governance: Finance versus Institutions in Private Investment Promotion," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/051, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Joseph Nnanna & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2020. "Finance, Institutions and Private Investment in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 20/080, African Governance and Development Institute..
    7. Sebri, Maamar & Dachraoui, Hajer, 2020. "Resources bless BRICS," MPRA Paper 100423, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Ms. Sweta Chaman Saxena & Meenakshi Rishi & Ms. Valerie Cerra, 2005. "Robbing the Riches: Capital Flight, Institutions, and Instability," IMF Working Papers 2005/199, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Cong Minh Huynh & Vu Hong Thai Nguyen & Hoang Bao Nguyen & Phuc Canh Nguyen, 2020. "One-way effect or multiple-way causality: foreign direct investment, institutional quality and shadow economy?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 219-239, February.
    10. Valerie Cerra & Meenakshi Rishi & Sweta Saxena, 2008. "Robbing the Riches: Capital Flight, Institutions and Debt," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(8), pages 1190-1213.
    11. Hajer Dachraoui & Maamar Sebri & Mahmoud M. A. Dwedar, 2021. "Natural Resources and Illicit Financial Flows from BRICS Countries," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Cruz, Manuel David & Jha, Chandan Kumar & Kırşanlı, Fatih & Sedai, Ashish Kumar, 2023. "Corruption and FDI in natural resources: The role of economic downturn and crises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    13. Mina, Wasseem, 2012. "Beyond FDI: The Influence of Bilateral Investment Treaties on Debt," MPRA Paper 51920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Yalta, A. Yasemin & Yalta, A. Talha, 2012. "Does financial liberalization decrease capital flight? A panel causality analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 92-100.
    15. Cheung, Yin-Wong & Steinkamp, Sven & Westermann, Frank, 2016. "China's capital flight: Pre- and post-crisis experiences," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 88-112.
    16. Aziz, Omar Ghazy, 2018. "Institutional quality and FDI inflows in Arab economies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 111-123.
    17. Mina, Wasseem, 2015. "Political risk guarantees and capital flows: The role of bilateral investment treaties," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-38.
    18. Ashis Kumar Pradhan & Gourishankar S. Hiremath, 2017. "The Capital Flight From India: A Case Of Missing Woods For Trees?," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 65(02), pages 365-383, January.
    19. Das, Khanindra Ch. & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar, 2020. "International subsidiary performance of Indian multinationals in the extractive sector: The role of institutional quality, corruption and investment regime," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    20. Elheddad, Mohamed M., 2018. "What determines FDI inflow to MENA countries? Empirical study on Gulf countries: Sectoral level analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 332-339.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2016-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.